Here is another of the resting-places of fallen royalty; and a happy
haven has it proved to many a crowned head; a retreat where the plain
reproof of flattery--
How can you say to me,--I am a king?
would sound with melancholy sadness and truth.
The reader of "the age and body of the time" need not be told that the
tenancy of Holyrood by the Ex-King of France has suggested its present
introduction, although the Engraving represents the Palace about the
year 1640. The structure, in connexion with the Chapel,[1] is thus
described in Chambers's _Picture of Scotland_, vol. ii. p. 61.
The Chapel and Palace of Holyrood are situated at the extremity of the
suburb called the Cannongate. The ordinary phrase "the Abbey," still
popularly applied to both buildings, indicates that the former is the
more ancient of the two. Like so many other religious establishments,
it owns David I. for its founder. Erected in the twelfth century, and
magnificently endowed by that monarch, it continued for about four
centuries to flourish as an abbey, and to be, at least during the
latter part of that time, the residence of the sovereign. In the year
1528, James V. added a palace to the conventual buildings. During the
subsequent reign of Mary, this was the principal seat of the court; and
so it continued in a great measure to be, till the departure of King
James VI. for England. Previously to this period, the Abbey and Palace
had suffered from fire, and they have since undergone such revolutions,
that, as in the celebrated case of Sir John Cutler's stockings, which,
in the course of darning, changed nearly their whole substance, it is
now scarcely possible to distinguish what is really ancient from the
modern additions.
As they at present stand, the Palace is a handsome edifice, built in
the form of a quadrangle, with a front flanked by double towers, while
the Abbey is reduced from its originally extensive dimensions to the
mere ruin of the chapel, one corner of which adjoins to a posterior
angle of the Palace. Of the palatial structure, the north-west towers
alone are old. The walls were certainly erected in the time of James V.
They contain the apartments in which Queen Mary resided, and where her
minion, Rizzio, fell a sacrifice to the revenge of her brutal husband.
A certain portion of the furniture is of the time, and a still smaller
portion is said to be the handiwork of that princess. The remaining
parts of the structure were erected in the time of Charles II. and have
at no time been occupied by any royal personages, other than the Duke of
York, Prince Charles Stuart, the Duke of Cumberland, the King of France,
(in 1795-9,) and King George IV. in 1822. In the northern side of the
quadrangle is a gallery one hundred and fifty feet in length, filled
with the portraits of nearly as many imaginary Scottish kings. The south
side contains a suite of state apartments, fitted up for the use of the
last-mentioned monarch. These various departments of the Palace, as well
as the Chapel, are shown to strangers, for a gratuity, by the servants
of the Duke of Hamilton, who is hereditary keeper of the Palace. It may
be mentioned, before dismissing this subject, that the precincts of
these interesting edifices were formerly a sanctuary of criminals, and
can yet afford refuge to insolvent debtors.
From the time of the departure of George the Fourth from Edinburgh, in
1822, Holyrood Palace remained without any distinguished inhabitant
until last year, when Charles the Tenth, and his suite, took up their
abode within its walls. In the same year too, died George IV.
[1] A view of the Chapel, from the Diorama, in the Regent's Park,
with ample descriptive details, will be found in vol. v. of
_The Mirror._
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